Spooky tales and historic tours on TV

Dave Dull doesn't know whether to believe in ghosts, but he does know some peculiar things happened when shooting "Legends" in 2002 for Antietam Cable Television.

While preparing to shoot a scene at South Mountain Inn one morning, he and others heard a "weird noise echoing through the mountain" that sounded like an animalistic screaming, producer Dull said. He later learned it was probably a wildcat.

Whether he believes or not, Dull was once again at the helm of ghostly stories for the cable television company. This time it's the docudrama "South Mountain Magic," an adaptation from a book by the late Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren.

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Dahlgren's summer home in the late 1800s was South Mountain Inn and the book and docudrama share tales her neighbors told her about supernatural and local myths surrounding the mountain.

Dahlgren, who was the widow of famed Civil War naval officer Adm. John A. Dahlgren (inventor of the first modern naval gun used on the USS Monitor during the Civil War), became a prominent writer of her time, according to an Ant-ietam Cable news release.

In addition to spooky tales, Antietam Cable is starting a new series, "Historic Homes of Washington County," that kicks off at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1.

The show will allow the public to see the interior of historic homes as well as historic structures on Antietam National Battlefield, said Dull, who also produced this series.

New episodes will air every month with the battlefield structures to be featured in a two-parter in January and February.

Antietam Cable is owned by Schurz Communications Inc., which also owns The Herald-Mail Co.

TV guide

"South Mountain Magic"

Channel: 19

Showtimes: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sundays through October; and during "Night of Ghosts," which starts at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, and includes previous local ghost story shows.